Curt Schacker has been appointed vice president-professional services for Real-Time Innovations , Sunnyvale, Calif. He was head of business operations for Toroki Communications.
Five European countries held an exercise Mar. 6-20 near Gap, in the French Alps, to improve interoperability and training levels for helicopters deployed overseas. The exercise, being run under the auspices of the European Defense Agency at the urging of France and the U.K., was to involve 10 helicopters from Belgium, France, Hungary, Spain and the Czech Republic. Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Sweden were also to participate in the operation, which included mobilizing 150 troops.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says a congressional mandate to physically screen 50% of all cargo on passenger flights by February 2009 has been met and industry is well on its way to meeting another deadline spelled out in a 2007 law: screening all cargo transported on passenger aircraft by 2010. But the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says TSA is so far unable to verify that the required screening level has been met.
France’s armaments agency DGA says a €2.3-billion ($2.9-billion) government economic stimulus package approved late last year (AW&ST Dec. 22/29, 2008, p. 19) will help boost military hardware procurement to the highest level in decades. DGA Chief Executive Laurent Collet-Billon says purchase authorizations will rise to €20.3 billion this year, more than double the €9.2 billion allocated in 2008.
Julio Navarro (see photo), a Boeing technical fellow who works in the Phased Array Antenna Group in the company’s Phantom Works, Renton, Wash., has received the 2008 Hispanic in Technology Corporate Award from the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers . The award recognizes contributions in the fields of engineering or science, with sustained contributions in design, production management, education or research.
Ron Allgood has been named manager of supply chain, Carlos Flores market manager, Brian Schmalz director of business development and strategic planning and Eric Clower director of operations, all for the Nordam Group , Tulsa, Okla. Flores was chief of staff to the Nordam chairman, while Clower was engineering manager. Schmalz was director of fleet planning for Northwest Airlines.
Copenhagen-based Star Air has awarded a $55-million contract to Delta TechOps to overhaul and repair 22 General Electric CF6-80A2/C2s that power Star Air’s fleet of 11 Boeing 767-200SF cargo aircraft. The eight-year contract, which was announced on Mar. 17, converts a time-and-material agreement that became effective in February 2004 to a power-by-the-hour arrangement. It also supplements an 11-year time-and-material pact for auxiliary power units signed in March 2005, and a 10-year power-by-the-hour agreement signed in September 2004 for components.
Boeing reports the P-8A on which India’s P-8I is based completed loads calibration testing two weeks ahead of schedule. The test, a prerequisite in the U.S. Navy flight-clearance process, involved application of up to 80% of the highest expected flight loads to the fuselage, horizontal stabilizers, vertical fin and wing structures. Airworthiness testing of the T-1 test aircraft will begin later this year. The Navy has ordered 108 P-8As.
Frank Jackman (Washington), Michael Mecham (Phoenix)
Operators of Boeing aircraft converted to freighters soon will have to pay the OEM an annual fee of anywhere from $50,000 to $250,000 per aircraft to access technical support, Boeing has confirmed. The size of the fee, the payment of which allows an operator to submit support requests but does not cover the cost of the support or service provided, will be determined primarily by where the aircraft was converted. The largest fees will be charged to operators of aircraft converted under non-Boeing-licensed supplemental type certificates.
Mergers and acquisitions have slowed to a trickle in the aerospace and defense sector, and a revival of activity is being held at bay by the industry’s cloudy future.
Stephen D. Yslas (see photo) has been appointed corporate vice president/general counsel of the Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp. He was corporate vice president/secretary/deputy general counsel and succeeds W. Burks Terry, who has retired. Yslas has been succeeded by Joseph F. Coyne, Jr. (see photo), who was a partner with the law firm of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton. Nigel Essenhigh (see photo) has been named non-executive chairman for Northrop Grumman in the U.K. He succeeds Graham Thornton, who has retired.
Former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has been named to receive the National Space Trophy from the Houston-based Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation .
Though the spigot of funds flowing out of the Pentagon is drying up, there still could be opportunities to develop new technologies, says Keith Sanders, deputy director of air warfare for the Pentagon acquisition chief. One emerging need is for a system capable of detecting hostile fire for low-flying aircraft, he says. Upgrades of this sort could see funding in the near future, while ambitious efforts for new start programs are unlikely to gain support in the Pentagon.
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), is the 2009 Space Laureate for his work in the dawn of commercial space transportation.
Countless people helped shape U.S. aviation policy following World War II, but no one had a more profound influence than Alan S. Boyd, the first Transportation secretary. For nearly half a century, no fewer than six U.S. presidents turned to him for his advice and assistance. For his enduring public service, Aviation Week bestowed on Boyd its 2009 Philip J. Klass Award for Lifetime Achievement.
As Washington grapples with ways to reform an ailing Pentagon acquisition and contracting system, the knee-jerk response inside the Beltway is to study the issue and audit programs (see p. 24). But, several defense officials suggest auditors alone can’t fix the problem. Pentagon program managers acknowledge proper oversight is paramount, but say that more doesn’t mean better. The pace of contracting has slowed—some say to a glacial state—in part because of hurdles added to programs prior to contract release.
There is little fault in the business aviation community itself. The aircraft industry, which uses probably a minuscule percentage of the U.S.’s energy, is spending billions of dollars on reducing that number by less than a percentage point. The automobile industry, originator of the present storm, has spent the last 20 years or more promoting monster vehicles in defiance of the spirit and intention of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy legislation, wasting more fuel in a day than the aviation industry can save in a year.
Latecoere says it has landed €350 million worth of work for cabling racks and tooling on the Airbus A350XWB, and talks for additional work packages are underway. The company reported record revenues of €500 million in 2008, not counting exceptional items. However, earnings before interest and taxes declined to €31.9 million from €39.1 million in 2007, and the company finished the year with a €6.7-million net loss.
Boeing says the low-power microprocessors, microcontrollers, sensors and imaging systems it is developing for nanosatellites are exhibiting surprisingly long operational lives. Proof has come in the performance of a 900-gram (31.7-oz.) orbiting testbed called CubeSat TestBed 1 (CSTB1) from the company’s Advanced Network and Space Systems (ANSS) division of Phantom Works.
The Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington was a fitting backdrop for Aviation Week’s 2009 Laureate Awards. Erected and opened during the worst days of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the gilded, temple-form auditorium is a reminder that great things can be achieved even in the worst of times. And for one evening on Mar. 3, more than 300 luminaries put aside worries of the deepening global economic crisis for a few hours to celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of individuals and teams in aviation, aerospace and defense at the black-tie dinner gala.
Investigators and regulatory agencies in the U.S. and Europe are working in concert to prevent a recurrence of uncommanded engine rollbacks on Boeing 777s with Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines. The NTSB on Mar. 11 issued urgent safety recommendations to the FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) calling for mandated installation of a redesigned Trent 800 Series engine fuel/oil heat exchanger (FOHE)—a component that Rolls expects to be certified and ready for use in July.
Eurocopter EC225 and Sikorsky S-92 helicopters will be pitched against each other for the U.K. Defense Ministry and Maritime Coastguard Agency’s Search and Rescue Helicopter program. AirKnight—comprising Lockheed Martin UK, VT Group and British International Helicopters—is proposing the EC225. Soteria—made up of CHC Helicopter Corp., Thales UK and the Royal Bank of Scotland—is offering the S-92. The aircraft is due to enter service in 2012.
Jonathan Penn has done some great number-crunching to show us the F-22, with a potential kill ratio of 30 to 1, is not needed in numbers over the 183 currently planned (AW&ST Mar. 2, p. 8). He tells us it’s a waste of money to buy what we will never need and cannot afford.
Boeing will lease 25 717s to MexicanaClick, a low-fare subsidiary of the Mexicana Group, with the first 16 aircraft coming from inventory once operated by Midwest Air Group of Milwaukee. Midwest will continue to operate nine 717s. They replace Mexicana Fokker 100s on an interim basis. The first 717 is due to arrive by the end of March; deliveries will continue through 2010. MexicanaClick will fly the 717 with 20 seats in first class and 84 in coach. Boeing Commercial Airplane Services will provide crew training.
The first two of eight Alenia Aermacchi MB-339CM trainers for the Malaysian air force have been delivered. The remaining six aircraft are to be delivered during the next year. They are to be used as lead-in fighter trainers. Malaysia has operated the MB-339A, which will now be phased out. The CM-configuration is based on the CD-standard in service in Italy.
